MP wants idle sisal land given to people

By The guardian reporter

15th March 2011

Email

Print

Comments

Member of Parliament for Korogwe Rural constituency Steven Ngonyani, alias Prof Majimarefu, has again called on the government to revoke title deeds of sisal plantations that have been abandoned by owners, proposing that the land should be distributed to the people.

Speaking to this reporter over the weekend, Prof Majimarefu said he was surprised why the government was keeping mum on sisal plantations that had ceased being operative while the people had no farming land.

He complained that some investors in his constituency had abandoned the plantations for so long that they had now turned into hiding places for wild pigs and other dangerous animals.

Majimarefu said the investors' failure to develop the plantations was enough reason to revoke the title deeds.

“Apart from the plantations not being developed … abandonment of farms denies the district council of income that would have come from them … this matter has taken far too long. What is the problem?” he wondered.

“These investors don’t seem to care about the law, they have even stopped paying taxes, and they don’t abide by the terms of the contracts to occupy the plantations,” he said.

He said it was time the law that empowers people to occupy land should also be used to strip of the right to occupy it if one does not abide by the law.

“The government should take stern measures against bogus investors. Land is valuable property and people should not play with it,” he emphasized.